MTV Movie Awards: ‘The Avengers’ takes top prize

The young fans who helped turn “The Avengers” into a blockbuster flex their muscles again at the MTV Movie Awards Sunday, as the superhero flick took home the night’s biggest prize.

At the annual awards show, held at Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, the picture featuring Iron Man, Thor and Captain America was named movie of the year. According to MTV viewers, the movie also contained the best fight scene of the year, while Tom Hiddleston’s evil Loki was voted top villain.

“What’s the opposite of humbled? We’re Biebered to be standing here,” director Joss Whedon said upon accepting his final golden popcorn statue of the night.

PHOTOS: MTV Movies Awards 2013 | Red carpet arrivals

The quirky dramedy “Silver Linings Playbook” also had a successful evening, tying “The Avengers” with three awards of its own. Moviegoers were clearly enamored with the film’s Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence: Each took home top performance awards, and as a couple won the famed best kiss award. (Lawrence was not able to plant one on her hunky co-star; she was in Massachusetts filming her next movie.)

The telecast was hosted by Rebel Wilson, who reunited with her “Pitch Perfect” cast for an a capella mash-up of Top 40 hits. During the show, Wilson did her own version of Billy Crystal’s iconic Oscar opening spoof, appearing in faux deleted scenes from “Les Misérables,” “Magic Mike” and “Life of Pi,” in which she dressed as tiger Richard Parker.

Though the program honored movies from 2012, a handful of upcoming releases also got considerable screen time. Exclusive clips from “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and “Iron Man 3” were shown, while the casts of “Fast & Furious 6” and “Star Trek: Into the Darkness” showed up to present awards.

PHOTOS: MTV Movies Awards 2013 | Show highlights

On the red carpet before heading into the auditorium, “The Heat” director Paul Feig said he was hopeful that Melissa McCarthy’s presence alone would help to spread buzz about the movie before its June release.

“When we tested the movie, it did really well among young men and women, so I think this will help promote the movie to the right audience,” the filmmaker said.

Not that everyone in attendance fit into that demographic. “Beasts of the Southern Wild” star, 9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis, often looked uncomfortable during some of the show’s raunchier bits.

“My sister used to watch MTV and I’d tell her to change the channel,” the young actress said on the carpet. “I wanted to watch Disney.”

amy.kaufman@latimes.com

jasmine.elist@latimes.com

PHOTOS AND MORE

Roger Ebert: Career in pictures